Journey to the Nightside (April 2018)

“The journey to the nightside of awareness is foremost an alteration in the states and functions of consciousness. Profane routine gives way to initiatic trance. The whole spectrum of awareness is of course far more vast than the narrow band of waking perception; the ability to deliber­ately shift the reference point of consciousness into novel regions of this spectrum is one technical way of describing the trans-dimensional and trans-æonic otherworld journeys which the initiated magician may wish to embark upon. Nevertheless, the conclusion that these altered states of consciousness somehow ‘are’ the otherworld is esoterically erroneous. This is the case just as it would be a mistake to propose that the shift of consciousness from waking to dreaming to sleeping necessarily involves either a real inscension solely into the subjective realms of consciousness, or an actual projection into other dimensions. Rather, a change in state of awareness simply reconfigures the apparatus of perception in a novel way without actually accomplishing anything else at all. This, however, grants it usefulness where occult matters are concerned. The practitioner skilled in changing his or her state of awareness has the ability to vastly increase the number of options and possibilities able to be consciously accessed in a given situation. Similarly, he has the capacity to perceive a great deal more than someone with a comparatively restricted range of awareness. The capability for ‘abyssal navigation’ is indispensable in æonic and trans-æonic operations as well as any Quest for initiation, particularly a solitary one, since the solitary initiate has to become both cartographer and guide.”–Victor Voronov, Liber Nigri Solis

I may wander in dark woods without becoming lost even if I never return back to my starting place. As long as I travel these roads I will follow the signposts of others as I carve my own in words and images. Tho I meet others on the road, even travel with them for a time I will forge my own way. I will share what I know and ask them the same until our roads divide. I embrace the madness and terror of the journey and I find my way.